Forward to Anslem
by Jason Andrew
Summary: This is the forward in Future Jake's novel Anslem about his father.


"Forward to Anslem"  
By Jason Andrew

Anslem is dedicated to my loving father, Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko. It is my deepest hope that I will one day become half the man that he is. You will note that I have used the presence tense when speaking of my father. He had passed beyond this world to live in the Celestial Temple with the Prophets. Of course, the official Starfleet record lists him as missing in action. Both accounts are true enough. There is so much about my father that is miraculous.

I remember the night that the legend started. My mother Jennifer had just tucked me into my bunk when the alert klaxons sounded. I hopped out of bed and peered out through my window to see the Borg Cube. No one suspected that a single Borg cube could wipe out an entire fleet. It was my father that found me and took me to the escape pod. He stopped only to grieve for my mother. We watched as the Saratoga exploded.

The next few years were dark times for my father. He loved my mother very much and a small part of him died each day. He wore a brave face, but I knew the truth. That way I didn't complain too much when Starfleet assigned him to Deep Space Nine. When we first got there, the place was a wreck. At first, I hated it. The truth is that Deep Space Nine had as much to do with my becoming a writer as my father.

I met people from a hundred different worlds, each with a unique perspective. The vulcans have a philosophy called infinite diversity in infinite combinations. That's DS9 in spades. I've met everything from Trill to sentiment holograms to aliens that live inside of a wormhole.

And it was my father that made the station a home for all of us. I wanted more than anything else to make him happy. When he first left the wormhole, there was something about him that was changed. He had a sense of peace. That's why I can't fault the wormhole aliens for taking him for a time. They gave him his life back. And in return, he helped all of us at that station.

The first time I told him I wanted to be a writer was during a trip in a Bajoran solar-sail vessel. We were standing in a vessel my father had built with his own two hands and I was afraid that he wouldn't like my story. I told him about my acceptance to the Pennington School. He didn't miss a single beat. He encouraged me and pointed out obvious flaws in my story. He always encouraged me.

Once he took me to the Gamma Quadrant to watch wormhole undergo to watch a subspace inversion. I wasn't really thrilled to be honest. There was an accident and my father almost died. It never occurred to me that he might die. Considering what happened to my mother that might seem a bit naïve. He survived the Borg, the Cardassians, and even the Prophets. Years later, he told me that he had visited an alternate reality where I had become a famous writer, but he had died. I'm glad he kept that a secret. My head would have swollen so large I'd never be able to fit into that station. He eventually told me so that I could learn a lesson. Sometimes you have to stop and live life for a while.

I started this book when an alien named Onaya offered to spark my creativity. She was very beautiful, sensual. I didn't know that while she was tuning my creativity into overdrive, she was feeding from me. My father knew. He saved me just in time. We sat in our quarters afterwards. He must have felt strange that I started Anslem; the book that I had become famous for in the alternate timeline. He read the first draft pleased. And then he said something that stuck with me for a very long time. "I especially liked the father."

It was intimidating seeing words that I had created, but hadn't earned the right to produce. The words came from inside of me, but it was Onaya that brought them out. I vowed I would become worthy of them. I did everything I could to become a better writer and when I could, I shared my father's adventures.

I met an alternate version of my mother in the mirror universe. I helped carried the wounded at the skirmish with the klingons on Ajilon Prime. I played matchmaker for my father and his new wife. And then, the Prophets blessed my father with the visions. He saw many things of the past and future, but it was killing him. I couldn't lose him. He was ready to die for the visions, but I didn't have his faith. I couldn't understand.

His visions came true. The Alpha Quadrant went to war with the Dominion. Bajor being neutral saved it. There was a time when things looked very bleak indeed. That's when the Prophets sent my father another vision, of another dark time. He lived the life of a science fiction writer named Benny in the 1950s struggling against racism. My father had always had a passion for history, but this vision was very real. Afterwards, I felt like he knew me better. He understood what it is like to put words upon the page.

We spent less time together after that. The Dominion War took up most of his time. There were dark times, but he held us all together. Through it all, we took the time to stop and live life. He married Kassady and built a house on Bajor. Soon, I will have a brother or sister. I will tell him or her about the courage of our father and how he ended the Dominion War. I do not know why the Prophets called him to the Celestial Temple. I only know that he promised us that he would return. My father has never let me down. And so I dedicate this novel to my father who is one day coming home.


End file.
